Show HN: Universal Timer (for Pomodoro, HIIT, or breathing exercises) (opens in new tab)

Granted, there are countless workout and pomodoro timers around. However, if I liked one, it still had a feature missing that I really liked from a different one. Ads and paid apps were a no go, too. So I was inspired by many of them to create my own.

Primarily, I wanted sounds, good visibility, customizable sequences, and good usability on mobile.

I am doing one workout almost daily, so I use it very often. I have a couple of routines ranging from 4 to 20 minutes. When I am changing routines after some months, I need to memorize them first. Therefore, I wanted to be able to name the intervals.

Other features include:

- Sequence editor that helps efficiently creating alternating and numbered intervals.

- Background color changes depending on a work/rest type of interval. Sometimes I am listening to music through a different device and miss the countdown. With the colors changing and the progress circle, it is easy to recongnize, if the work or rest interval has already started.

- Light and Dark modes are kind of a must have for every app nowadays.

- Progress circles are more accurate to estimate from afar than bars plus they give a nice visual touch.

- Detailed timing that includes the wall time when the workout is finished. Sometimes I am in a bit of a rush before taking a shower. With that display, it is easier to see, if I still have time for a workout.

- Intervals can easily be skipped, restarted, and repeated.

- There are a set of sounds to choose from: workout, breathe, or none.

- I discovered that browsers now even have speech synthesis APIs. The timer will tell you what the upcoming interval will be, so you never have to check the display.

- System notifications are triggered for longer intervals as used in the pomodoro technique.

It is pretty much feature complete now. I want to add an import/export feature in the near future though.

However, please let me know what you are still missing to make it your preferred timer!

Depending on the platform, the timer may not play sounds anymore when put in the background. I have found that the timing of the sounds also depend on the network quality. In any case, it will resume counting correctly when re-opening it in the foreground.

The source code is just one short html file that can be loaded into the browser. Hence, it's open source. I am not a dev anymore, but I love how cross-platform applications can be built with web technologies nowadays. I like Vue.js for its simplicity to create dynamic templates.